A quiet little spot where Rod Mollise shares his adventures and misadventures...

Sunday, March 30, 2014

A Year with the VX

Well, almost a
year, anyhow, muchachos. I bought Celestron’s successor to the much-loved CG5 German
equatorial mount last May (2013). I thought y’all might be interested to hear how we
are getting along and some of my observations on the mount after using it as
much as I could over the course of a year that was the cloudiest I remember
since 1994.

“Wait just one cotton picking minute, Unk. I thought the
subject of this week’s blog was supposed to be your latest jaunt down to Chiefland Astronomy Village?” That
it was, that it was. There were two flies in that ointment, however.
The first was weather. The closer we
got to the date of the legendary Chiefland Spring Picnic, the worse the 10-day forecasts on
Wunderground and weather.com became. These forecasts settled into a dreary
sameness: “Overcast Thursday night. 80 –
90% chance of rain and thunderstorms Friday and Saturday.”

Frankly, I wasn’t much in the mood to spend yet another
long weekend sitting in a room in the Chiefland Quality Inn looking at cable TV. I’d hate to miss the big spring do and seeing my old
friends, though, so I spoke to Carl Wright, who is a lot closer to
the CAV than I am, to see what he thought. Alas, Carl didn't offer a speck of
encouragement weather-wise. Nevertheless, I’d normally, as you know, have said,
“Damn the Wunderground; full speed ahead!” But there was another factor to
consider this time…

If you’ve been following the blog long, you know Unk
retired from his engineering job last year, in February of 2013, to be exact. One of the things Miss Dorothy and I agreed would
happen after that was that we’d pull up stakes and move out of the Old Manse.
Much as I loved our Victorian home in the Garden District, it had become too much. Too much room. Too much upkeep.
I was also longing for a place where I could do at least some observing. The
growth of trees in and around Chaos Manor South’s backyard has prevented that
for years.

So, we hopped in the 4Runner, Miss Van Pelt, last Saturday afternoon with
no grander intention than of driving around and having a look at a few suburban
neighborhoods. We almost immediately found a subdivision we liked, one close to
the University and numerous friends. When we got home, I fired up realtor.com
and started looking at details of the homes we’d seen for sale in “Hickory
Ridge.”

Right off the bat, I found a house I liked. Single story. Brick. Big backyard. Miss Dorothy
liked it too, especially after we had a look at its Open House that Sunday. In fact,
she was downright enthusiastic.
Still, as we always do, D. and I maintained a “business is business” attitude
when we talked to the seller’s agent. Keeping emotion tamped down is the best
way, we've found, to assure success in business endeavors—which is what buying
a house is, no matter how many emotions are stirred in the process.

Anyhow, by Tuesday morning, almost unbelievably, we were making an offer, which was promptly
accepted, and we've now begun the mountains of paperwork and mucho hoop-jumping
required to purchase a home these days. I was busy,
tired, and most assuredly not ready for a big observing expedition. I cancelled my motel reservations down
Chiefland Way—is there any sadder phrase in the English language than that?
Rest assured, I WILL head back to the CAV this coming May New Moon come hell or
high water, I promise (April’s dark of the Moon will bring the 2014 Deep South
Regional Star Gaze Spring Scrimmage).

Does this spellthe end of fabled Chaos Manor South? Nope.
We will be here for some weeks yet. More importantly, “Chaos Manor South” is
not just a place. It is a state of mind. It is the state of Unk’s mind, such as it is, and he
carries it around with him wherever he goes. Expect to hear a lot more about
the new Chaos Manor South in the
coming months, but I believe you, our friends, will be pleased for us.

Back to the Celestron Advanced VX. Why did I want a VX anyhow? I had a perfectly good CG5. That mount
performed as well as it ever had at last spring’s Deep South Regional Star Gaze Spring Scrimmage, helping me image over a hundred objects despite there only
being only one fully clear night during the whole three day event. Since the VX
and the CG5 are roughly comparable, why would your stingy Uncle offer up dineros
for a VX?

The main reason was that the CG5 was getting long in
the tooth. It was nearly a decade old; I bought it on a semi-whim in the
spring of 2005. Yes, it did as well as it ever had at that Spring Scrimmage, but
it had a lot of miles on it, and was not an expensive mount to begin with.
Seeing as how I rely on a C8 – GEM combo for much of my observing now, having a
reliable medium weight mount is important to me. I dang sure don’t want to lug my
Atlas all over creation. I decided the coming of the new VX was a signal it was
time to relegate the CG5 to backup status.

I also wanted a retirement
present. I make no secret of the fact that retirement was a big adjustment
for me. The excitement of a new telescope and mount would, I thought, help ease
the Rodster into his new life. Coincidentally, Celestron had just announced a
package deal consisting of the CG5’s new replacement, the VX, and an Edge 800
SCT OTA for an attractive price.

I’d been admiring the Edge 800 for months and months and
months, and we will talk about her and her sisters again sometime soon. Today,
though, the subject is the mount. Would the VX be better than the CG5? Looking
at the specs and talking to people who’d used the mount, I could tell the newun
was more like the old mount than different. Similar payload capacity, and, I
suspected, a similar periodic error. Which was good, since I never had any
problem guiding the CG5 for any length of exposure I wanted to do. Also good
was that the VX’s weight was about the same as that of the CG5—nice and light,
a godsend for your broken down Uncle.

There were
differences. Quite a few, actually. The VX was not just a gussied up CG5, it seemed. Yes,
the tripod was almost the same as that of its predecessor, but that’s where
the similarities ended. The GEM head had been completely redesigned. It was
more attractive, better finished, and sturdier. In the “real good” category,
Celestron completely redid the control panel. It was now part of the polar
axis—the old mount’s control panel was on the RA motor’s plastic housing and
had a definite tacked-on look.

The new control panel offered the same connections as the
CG5: auto-guide (ST-4 input), declination, and hand control, plus a couple of
new ones, Aux 1, and Aux 2. The connector for the declination cable had been
moved away from the others on the VX and was now vertically oriented
on the right side of the panel. That would make it much less likely you’d plug
the HC into the declination port, which Unk used to do frequently with the CG5—risking
possible electronics damage. Only complaint? How come the hand control receptacle
was the second port on the control panel instead of the first, which would seem
to make sense? Oh, well.

A constant source of irritation for CG5 owners, including
Unk, was the mount’s small power switch, which inevitably failed. Mine lasted
about three years. After that, I left it in the “on” position permanently, and
turned the mount on and off by plugging and unplugging the power cable. That
worked, but was hardly an elegant solution. On the VX, the power switch, I
could see, was now a nice big one that looked easier to operate and which I suspected
would be longer-lived.

There was a red pilot light on the control panel, and,
finally, a 12-volt power connector. The new power connector was furnished with
a threaded collar like the one on the CGEM’s power socket. That allows you to
thread-on the power cable as well as plug it in, which helps maintain a good
connection, I suppose. Might not be a good thing if you tend to snag or trip
over your cables, howsomeever.

That was it for the visible electrical/electronic
improvements. There were apparently some invisible ones too, including a new
motor control board that supposedly helped with guiding, but I never
had problems in that regard with the CG5.

The remaining upgrades were of a mechanical nature, and
they were significant. The altitude and azimuth adjustment bolts, the flimsy
little adjustment bolts of the CG5, had been replaced with hefty bolts with
great, big knobs. The VX’s counterweight shaft was of the same diameter as the
CG5’s, but longer, allowing a C8 to balance with a single 11-pound “pancake”
weight. The single included counterweight (with the C8 package) was redone, too.
It was much more attractive and modern looking than the old Synta weights, and
its clamp bolt had a nice big T-handle (the old style weights still work on the
VX). The CG5’s RA axis end cover, which always wanted to fall off, was ditched
for a nice molded plastic thread-on job for the VX.

Finally, Celestron replaced the silly stick-on labels that
served as index marks for the CG 5 with engraved lines on the RA and
declination axis. These index markers allow you to set the mount in its proper “home”
position before beginning alignment—ain’t no position switches on a CG5 or VX. I
thought the new ones would be easy to see after dark with the aid of a dim red
light.

Actually, I fibbed. There was one other electronic/computer
change, Unk was told, and one he wasn’t sure he liked. The old Celestron
NexStar hand control was history.
What was shipping with the VX mounts was the new “Plus” version. While this
thing supposedly had a faster computer and better display, Unk had not been impressed when he’d tried his
buddy John’s Plus HC at the CAV the previous winter. Main complaint? There are
no longer “M” and “NGC” buttons. To get to either catalog, you have drill down
through a deep sky object menu, just like on a cotton picking Meade Autostar.
Sheesh.

Your silly old Uncle was
quite impressed with the mount’s specs and with the pretty full-page ads he saw
for the Edge 800/VX combo in Sky and
Telescope. Course, now he had to get
one, which is always an adventure in amateur astronomy. It had taken forever
for Unk’s CG5 to arrive. It had been on its way to Possum Swamp when the UPS
truck carrying it had crashed and burned on the Interstate—that’s what the
seller told Unk, anyhow. It was weeks before the CG5 finally arrived.

At first, it looked like things would go smoother with the
VX/Edge. I ordered it from my go-to guy, Bob
Black, whose Skies Unlimited is my dealer
of choice in these latter days. The new scope and mount arrived at the Old
Manse promptly, right after I returned from a gig at the renowned Raleigh Astronomy Club, where I gave a talk on the
Herschel Project.

Yep, it looked like the newun would spare Unk the travails
usually associated with buying new gear. The OTA was perfect, and the mount at
first seemed to be the same. I did
notice a couple of peculiarities. The “toe-saver” bolt on the end of the
declination counterweight shaft would not thread on all the way. Also, the
central rod that threads into the GEM head to attach it to the tripod didn't
want to screw in as easily as the ones on my CG5 and Atlas. In all other
respects, the new mount appeared to be “go,” however.

Till I tried to remove the GEM head from the tripod to take
the rig out to my buddy Pat Rochford’s observatory for first light, that is.
Seemed kinda hard to unscrew the central bolt/rod. Then, suddenly, it locked
down. Hard. Wouldn't unscrew at all. Period. Couldn't tighten it back up,
either. Gentle persuasion wouldn’t loosen it. Spraying a little WD-40 didn't
help. With a sinking feeling, I realized I was in trouble.

The head would obviously have to come off the tripod somehow
for me to ship the mount back, which was purty obviously what was going to have
to happen. I began gently with a strap wrench, which wouldn’t turn the rod a
millimeter. I wound up with a pipe wrench that bent the central rod in the
course of getting the head off the tripod, not surprisingly destroying the hole
into which the rod was threaded in the process.

My assumption was (and is) that the hole for the central
bolt was improperly threaded, just like the one for the counterweight shaft
toe-saver. Anyhoo, having a good dealer made the difference. Bob and Celestron
got a new mount on the way and issued a UPS call tag for the old one. Unfortunately,
the replacement didn't quite make it in time for the Spring Scrimmage, which is
why the CG5 mount got a crack at the star party. The VX was waiting for me when
I got back home and this time everything really was perfect.

Did the Edge 800 OTA, Mrs. Emma Peel, do as well on the VX
as she had on the CG5? Yes. But it took me quite a while to
find that out. The sad fact was that after after the AVX's replacement arrived, we’d seen our last clear weather for a long, long time.

I did get out a couple of times under marginal conditions,
and was able to verify the new mount’s basic operation in a half-hour of clear
skies I got one evening. The goto accuracy seemed every bit as good as that of
the CG5, which is saying something—the CG5’s goto prowess was always equal to
or superior to that of my much more expensive NexStar 11. The new mount’s motors
were also quieter than those of the CG5; there were no more
weasels-with-tuberculosis noises to disturb the sanctity of the Possum Swamp
Astronomical Society observing field.

There things remained until October 2013. I did do a
considerable amount of lunar imaging and
some spectroscopy, but a full-blown Mallincam crusade against the deep sky, a
hundred object deep sky tear? Uh-uh.

I didn't see a fracking thing, really, till October began to
approach. When I finally got a semi-good night, I was ready for it. My mission
was both to give the VX a completely clean bill of health and to test a new
deep sky video camera I was excited about, the
Mallincam Junior Pro. That night on the PSAS field wasn’t perfect, but I
did have enough sucker holes to allow me to image about a dozen objects with Junior.
The mount did brilliantly, and I even made friends with the AllStar
polar alignment procedure.

The VX, like the CG5, does NOT need a good polar alignment
for visual observing. Just sighting the pole star through the mount’s empty
polar axis bore is enough. If you are imaging, however, even doing short
exposures with a Mallincam, you want to do a better polar alignment to ensure
stars are nice and round in your pictures.

Celestron has had an automated polar alignment routine in
their hand controls for a long time. The original procedure used Polaris.
Center Polaris it the eyepiece (or camera) using altitude and azimuth adjusters
after the mount pointed to where its computer thought the North Star should be given a perfect polar alignment,
and you were done.

In 2008, though, Celestron gave into the dreaded The Only Enemy of Good Enough is More Better
syndrome and released a new firmware load for their GEMs that replaced the
Polaris procedure with the AllStar polar alignment system, which would allow
you to use any star (sort of) except
Polaris for polar alignment. I tried the new firmware with my CG5 down Chiefland Way one January—and immediately went back to the old firmware. I just
thought the Polaris method was easier, and it was more than good enough for video
imaging.

When I got the VX, I figgered I’d load up the HC with the
old GEM firmware and continue to use the Polaris align system. Uh-uh. Nossir
buddy. The old firmware couldn’t be loaded into the new Plus HC. Heck, I
couldn’t even run the old code with NexRemote
connected to the VX. NexRemote would
not work with the mount without using the newer firmware builds.

A Man’s Gotta Do What
a Man’s Gotta Do, so that night with the VX and Junior I buckled down and
learned how to use AllStar. Wasn't bad at all. Worked well and easily (if not
as easily as the old method, if’n you ask me) if you used a star near the
intersection of the Celestial Equator and the Local Meridian. Due south and not
too high, that is. It even seemed like the polar alignment I got was a
smidge better than the ones produced by the old Polaris alignment.

The VX finally got its chance to shine last November at the
2013 DSRSG. The main goal was imaging as many Arp galaxies as possible with the
Mallincam Xtreme, but on one of the two good nights, I also did visual
observing with Miss Dorothy’s new Explore Scientific AR102 refractor on the VX. The mount performed superbly on both evenings, doing
over 75 Arps and dozens and dozens of showpiece DSOs besides. I noted the stars
stayed pleasingly round even in one-minute Mallincam integrations—with no
guiding, natch.

After the DSRG? Mostly, the AVX and Unk have sat under cloudy
skies. The few times we've got out, the mount has shown itself to be a
reliable, solid performer—just like the CG5. How about guided imaging? Can’t
say. Ain’t done none. Ain’t been able
to. I hope to rectify that in the near future, however. What do I expect in
that regard? I expect the mount to be at least as easy to guide as the CG5,
which would be a good thing. I used to have no trouble doing up to ten-minute
subs with the C8 and the CG5 and my SBIG ST2000 CCD cam.

Is there anything I do NOT like about the VX? Only one
thing: the way I have to connect my computer to the mount to run the NexRemote software. Y’all know I like to
operate my Celestron mounts with the program. I sit warm and cozy under a
tailgating canopy viewing Mallincam video on a monitor and controlling the
scope with an on-computer NexStar HC courtesy of NexRemote. It is a big deal for me.

I connected the computer to the CG5 via a “programming” cable
that ran to a “PC Port” on the mount. Unlike some Celestron mounts, the CG5
doesn't have a native PC Port. One was provided by a (no longer made) gadget
called the “Aux Port Accessory.” You can also run NexRemote by plugging a standard serial cable into the base of the
NexStar hand control, but going to the PC port is a better solution. You don’t
have to fool with the hardware HC. Doesn't have to be plugged in. You can leave
it at home.

Thought I’d do the same with the VX, which, like the CG5,
has no PC Port. Nope. The Aux Port Accessory wouldn’t work with the new mount. OK, Celestron
was advertising that their latest
widget, the SkyQ Link, would allow
you to run NexRemote wirelessly from
a laptop. Wouldn't have to have the hand control plugged into the mount, either. Since they specifically advertised
it to work with the AVX, I thought my problems were over and ordered one.

But it didn't work
with the AVX. I should probably have returned the blamed thing, but Celestron
made some soothing noises about fixing things in a couple of emails to me. As
you might guess, I haven’t heard back from them since. I don’t really expect to,
either. While the wireless widget does work with my CG5, it won’t work on the
mount I bought it for, so I feel like my
pocket has been picked by the danged rascals. I’ve got used to connecting NexRemote through the hardware hand
control, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Should you opt for an Advanced VX instead of a CG5? The CG5 is, after all,
a modern classic given its modest price and outstanding performance. Nevertheless,
I think the VX is the way to go now. Even if it weren't getting almost
impossible to find a new CG5, the VX is a better finished, somewhat more solid
mount. How about the competing mounts from iOptron? I haven’t used one of the
new ZEQ25s or, indeed, any of that company’s GEMs. I’ve heard they are good performers, but using one would mean giving up the VX’s incredible NexStar goto accuracy. Not to mention, muchachos, that
dagnabbed AllStar alignment, which your mercurial old Unk must now admit he likes.

Nota Bene: I have in my hands Rock Mallin’s latest creation,
the Mallincam Micro EX. I had high hopes of
reporting on it here this week. Obviously, with the cancellation of the CAV run,
that didn't happen. Rest assured, as soon as I can get the cam out under a dark
sky, you will hear all about it. I did fire it up in the house, and your
techno-challenged old Uncle was able to figure out how to work it without much
trouble, which bodes well.

Nota Bene 2: While bagging up stuff to throw out as we prepare to move, I ran across a long-lost set of pictures, including a few from the 1994 Deep South Regional Star Gaze. So, I updated my article about that event with some of the pix and some additional text, even. See it rat cheer.

2018 Update
What has changed over the four years since this article hit the streets?

We did indeed move out to the suburbs, to the above mentioned Hickory Ridge. While I still sometimes miss the Old Manse (long since sold), having a modern home that's easier to keep up and being able to observe in the backyard on those (increasingly rare) clear nights means I don't miss it that much.

It turned out I was to have another year, 2015, of Chiefland trips. Various changes have kept me away from that storied old observing field since then, however. Most of all, things just aren't the same as in the the fabled Tom Clark days, and it looks increasingly doubtful as to whether I'll ever make it back, even for an organized star party.

The Winter Star Party was held there this past February (under unrelenting clouds), but as far as I know there was no fall star party this year. And it looks like the WSP will be back in the keys for 2019. Above all, while a star party at CAV would be nice, my last visit was to the 2015 fall event, and that didn't go very well--I didn't have a very good time, anyway.

The AVX? Its replacement worked marvelously and has continued to work marvelously. My main complaint, the new hand control? I eventually made friends with it. As I did with the AllStar polar alignment routine. I had to admit that after I got some experience with it, AllStar did work well despite requiring quite some time to perform (you have to do a goto alignment before AllStar, and follow it with another goto alignment). Anyhow, I've switched over to Sharpcap for polar alignment, lining up on the pole with my guide camera. That is far more accurate than AllStar ever was.

I don't miss NexRemote anymore either. While I sometimes think it would still be handy to align the scope with a computer and a wireless gamepad, it really didn't make alignment much easier--except if I was doing video, which I don't do much anymore. It was nice to be able to sit under the tent canopy and fine tune star-centering watching a monitor and moving the mount with the gamepad. Alas, NexRemote's inability to use the new features of the Advanced VX meant I got tired of it in fairly short order. Today, NR is a thing of the past for Unk. I align the VX with the HC and send it on gotos with Stellarium/StellariumScope. Simpler is better for me at this time, and as much as I loved NexRemote, Stellarium is simpler.

The AVX mount itself? I spent some time refining my PHD settings and doing a PPEC run, and easily brought its periodic error total down to 1" or less--more than good enough for me.